The editorial page of Wednesday's New York Times includes a multi-panel cartoon by Marjane Satrapi, the author of the Persepolis graphic novel (see 'Persepolis, the Stealth Hit'), who profiles the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Iranian human rights lawyer and feminist, Shirin Ebadi. Satrapi, who served as Mrs. Ebadi's interpreter at a Paris news conference, provides a first person viewpoint for this comic/tragic vignette in which the peace prize winner is reviled by both certain elements of the Persian diaspora for living and working in Iran as well as by religious hardliners in Iran for shaking hands with two male students. While cartoons on the editorial page are nothing new, the first person, multi-panel narrative by Ms. Satrapi provides a depth of insight to which political cartoons rarely aspire. Earlier this year the Times ran a similarly effective autobiographical cartoon essay written by Harvey Pekar about his beloved streets of Cleveland. Wednesday's cartoon essay by Ms. Satrapi is further evidence of the acceptance and acknowledgement of the personal, often highly political comic book journalism practiced by Joe Sacco, Harvey Pekar, Ms. Satrapi and others.
On NY Times Editorial Page
Posted by ICv2 on December 10, 2003 @ 11:00 pm CT

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